Entries in Formula One
(4)

Tired of the fast-paced world of Formula One, former engineer, strategist and team owner Ross Brawn returns to competition in this year’s running of the London to Brighton Run. Braw, who orchestrated the F1 World Championships of Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button, will be driving the only known surviving British-built Wilson Pilcher. Built in 1904, the car was the creation of Walter Gordon Wilson (who later invented the army tank), and was displayed at the British Tank Museum. Until being purchased by Brawn, it had never been out of the ownership of the Wilson family.

“I know the family and knew about the car. But quite by chance I saw it in an auction catalog last year and made some enquiries,” he says. “I was told that it might leave the country as an American collector was interested. So I went into battle.” The car was taken to noted veteran car expert Nigel Parrot for recommissioning, and it’s first run in anger will be in the Brighton Run this November.

“It was a very advanced car for its day,” admits Brawn. “It has a 2.7-liter horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine which is suspended in a cradle in the chassis. It also has a sophisticated semi-automatic gearbox which, I believe, was a forerunner of the famous Wilson Pre-Selector ‘box. But compared to a modern car the suspension is crude and the braking takes… anticipation.” Let’s hope Brawn remembers what he learned from Parrott’s driving lessons. — CAS

Many years ago, during the early days of my tenure at AutoWeek, I had the chance to speak to America’s first F1 World Champion, Phil Hill, about the potential for carnage at the first Silver State Challenge road race. I fully expected Hill to question the sanity of those who would build mega-horsepower cars in the hopes of being the first across the line in a race that promised to leave more then a couple dead beside the road. I was wrong. To paraphrase Hill, it was man’s God-given right to do with his life as he pleased, and if that meant participating in an event with a high probability of carnage, so be it.

This is perhaps the wildest espresso maker ever. Espresso Veloce’s latest, available in both V10 and V12 configurations, replaces the smell of Castrol R with that of roasted coffee beans. The machines are made out of aluminum, titanium and magnesium, and are approximately half the size of an old 3.5-liter Formula One motor.

The oil filter cartridge hides the coffee filters, and the stubby exhaust pipes deliver the caffeinated elixir to piston-shaped mugs. The only thing missing is a starter button to get the brewing process underway. Only 500 of these machines will be made, so expect it to be Bernie Ecclestone expensive.

Though most of us will be unable to afford such a work of art, we can at least be thankful that Espresso Veloce decided to use the last of the large naturally aspirated engines as their inspiration. It just wouldn’t be the same if they had waited until next year, and copied the 1.6-liter V6 turbo engines the FIA has mandated. — CAS

Years before I went to work for the company’s American sales arm, I was walking around the Lotus factory in Hethel, England, with then-PR director Patrick Peal. Briefly married to one of founder Colin Chapman’s daughters and a Lotus employee since his mid-20s, Peal — who has gone on to start his own PR firm, Tribe PR, and is still a cherished friend — began to recount a particularly bizarre occurrence that took place at Lotus more than 14 years earlier: “Peter (Wright) was intrigued by the idea of flying saucers, but — as an aerodynamicist — didn’t think they would work.”

Instead of leaving the matter there, Wright continued to investigate the idea, going so far as to build a radio-controlled model of the craft. It was either a spinning disk or ring, functioned much like the vehicles at the center of many a 1950s or 1960s science fiction movie, and — according to accepted aerodynamic theory — would be about as successful a flying machine as the Avro Avrocar. In other words, lots of promise, but little actual ability. Though he didn’t see it himself, Peal says colleagues reported seeing Wright, radio control unit in-hand, walking around the Lotus grounds while looking up into the air and muttering: “It shouldn’t work. The damn thing shouldn’t work!”